Originally Posted by
HandsomeRyan
I think you are looking at this all wrong...
Let me pose a question to you: Do you own a set of channel lock pliers?
Assuming the answer is yes; How often do you use them?
Assuming the answer is less than once a month; How do you justify owning something that you use this infrequently?
The answer of course is that pliers are a tool and although you may not use them every day; they eventually earn their keep (in this case by allowing you to tighten a leaky pipe without havingto call a plumber).
A welder is the same thing; a tool. No, you won't save four or five hundred dollars on the first thing you weld to justify the purchase price but over time as you fix a lamp here, weld a bike trailer there, and so on; eventually the welder will have paid for itself and then some. I survived for 20+ years without needeing to weld anything but since I've owned a welder I've found at least 1-2 projects a month that were made possible or at least simplified by owning one.
Money spent on a tool is rarely money wasted.
Kind of a straw dog argument. I for instance use my channel lock pliers about once a week, when I bought them I was working as a mechanic and used them daily. Furthermore the pliers cost something like $20 while a decent welder is more like $500. $20 is pocket money, $500 is not, at least to me.
Then there is the point that pliers fit in the kitchen drawer (mine are in a roll around tool cabinet left over from my mechanicing days in the kitchen actually), I am not likely to keep a welder in my kitchen (I do have a drill press there so maybe I woud, but most folks wouldn't). Although I keep telling my self I ought to buy one of those little Oxy/Mapp Gas brazing torches that only cost $50 or so.
The long winded point of all this is that whether a tool is worth it depends on several things like:
Can you afford it?
Do you have some place to store it?
How much will you use it, realistically?
And do you have some place to use it (often a problem for us apartment dwellers)?
It is not a simple, "It's a tool, so it is worth it", proposition.